The present invention relates to a synthetic resin vehicle door outer panel. In addition, the present invention relates to a mounting structure for a synthetic resin vehicle door outer panel, and more particularly to an improvement to a mounting structure in which a synthetic resin door outer panel is secured to a door frame with a plurality of bolts and nuts. Further, the present invention relates to a vehicle door, and more particularly to a vehicle door comprising a synthetic resin door outer panel, and a door frame disposed on an inner surface side of the door outer panel for holding the door outer panel. The door frame has, at a vertically intermediate portion thereof, a frame constituent member extending straight in longitudinal direction of a vehicle body for reinforcing the door outer panel.
A conventional door outer panel is known that has a panel main body and a plurality of reinforcement ribs on an inner surface of the panel main body.
When a collision load is applied to the vehicle body of an automobile from the side, in order to absorb the collision load efficiently, the collision load needs to be transmitted from a door outer panel to the rest of the vehicle body frame via a side sill. With a conventional door outer panel, however, since the rigidity at a lower edge portion of the door outer panel is low, such a collision load absorption mechanism cannot easily occur. This problem affects conventional door outer panels.
In addition, a conventional mounting structure of this type has a door outer panel positioned relative to a door frame, and is then secured thereto at a plurality of securing positions or portions, each using a bolt and a nut for securing the door outer panel to the door frame.
With the conventional art, however, a substantial number of man-hours is required for mounting a door outer panel to a door frame. This increases the production cost of a vehicle, and is a problem of conventional mounting structures.
Further, the conventional door outer panel is constructed so as to have a predetermined thickness in order to have a certain surface rigidity. However, since thickening the panel is often insufficient to provide such a surface rigidity at a vertically intermediate portion, a frame constituent member as described above is disposed on the inner surface side of the door outer panel for reinforcing the vertically intermediate portion.
In this case, when the vertically intermediate portion of the door outer panel, in other words, a portion of the door outer panel opposed to the frame constituent member, is formed into an arch-like portion, which is slightly expanded sideways of the vehicle body from a design requirement, a gap is generated between the door outer panel and the frame constituent member. Moreover, the gap becomes poorly defined in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle body.
To cope with this, conventionally, to reinforce the relevant portion of the door outer panel with the frame constituent member substantially uniformly with respect to the longitudinal direction of the vehicle body, several kinds of rubber members, each having a different thickness, are installed in the gap. Alternatively, a plurality of rubber members having the same thickness are mounted in the gap using the elasticity thereof.
With the conventional approach, however, since substantial time is needed for production and installation of various types of rubber members, the production cost of conventional vehicle doors is increased.
An object of one aspect of the present invention is to provide a door outer panel that establishes a collision load absorption mechanism by improving the rigidity of a lower edge portion of the door outer panel.
In order to attain the above aspect, there is provided a synthetic resin vehicle door outer panel, formed through a gas assist injection molding method, that has a panel main body and an elongated hollow reinforcement projection provided on an inner surface of the panel main body, and extending in a longitudinal direction along the vehicle body so as to be opposed to a side sill on a vehicle body frame.
According to this construction, the rigidity at a lower edge portion of the door outer panel is increased by the elongated hollow reinforcement projection. Moreover since the elongated hollow projection opposes the side sill, even when a collision load is applied to the lower edge of the door outer panel from the side of the vehicle body, the collision load can be absorbed efficiently by allowing the applied collision load to be transmitted from the door outer panel to the rest of a vehicle body frame via the side sill. When using the gas assist injection molding, an elongated hollow projection can easily be molded as part of the molding process of a panel main body.
In this case, the collision load absorption mechanism can be established easily and securely through a construction in which a mounting portion is provided on the elongated hollow projection, so that the elongated hollow projection is mounted on a door frame at a portion close to the side sill.
In addition, when the door frame does not extend as far as a corner portion of the panel main body for weight reduction and economy, a continuous hollow reinforcement raised portion is provided on an inner surface of the panel main body at a corner area thereof, protruding from an associated corner portion of the door frame and a mounting area which is opposed to the corner portion of the door frame for mounting thereonto so as to extend over those two areas.
With this construction, the corner and mounting areas of the panel main body can be reinforced, whereby flutter of the corner portions can be prevented. The hollow raised portions can easily be molded as part of a molding process of a panel main body when the gas assist injection molding process is used.
Furthermore, in order to enhance the surface torsional rigidity of the door outer panel, a hollow raised portion is disposed on the inner surface of the panel main body at a lower portion on a rear end side thereof, so as to communicate with the elongated hollow projection, and a reinforcement rib continuous with the elongated hollow projection is disposed on the inner surface of the panel main body along a side edge portion on a front end side thereof. A reinforcement rib continuous with the hollow raised portion is disposed on the inner surface of the panel main body along a side edge portion on the rear end side thereof. In addition, a reinforcement rib formed closer to the upper ends of the respective two reinforcement ribs at a rear end thereof is disposed on the inner surface of the panel main body along an upper edge portion thereof.
Another object is to provide a mounting structure of the aforementioned type which can manage to facilitate the positioning of a synthetic resin door outer panel relative to a door frame and reduce man-hours required for mounting the door outer panel to the door frame.
There is provided a vehicle door outer panel mounting structure in which a synthetic resin door outer panel is fixed mounted on a door frame with a plurality of bolts and nuts. The mounting structure includes a structure for suspending a panel and at least one structure for fixing the panel in an easy and simplified fashion. Both are constructed prior to fixed mounting the door outer panel with the bolts and nuts. The structure for suspending a panel comprises a hook portion provided integrally with an upper portion on an inner surface of the door outer panel and an engagement portion provided on the door frame for engagement with the hook portion. The structure for fixing the panel in an easy and simplified fashion comprises a press insertion type fixing piece provided on one of the inner surface of the door outer panel and the door frame, and an engagement hole for the press-insertion type fixing piece provided on the other.
With this structure, the positioning of the door outer panel relative to the door frame can be facilitated through the suspension of the door outer panel relative to the door frame and press insertion of the fixing piece. Since the door outer panel is fixed mounted onto the door frame with bolts and nuts, good workability in mounting can be provided. In addition, since the fixing structure using the fixing piece also contributes to mounting the door outer panel onto the door frame, the number of fixing positions using bolts and nuts can be reduced based on the extent of contribution of the structure, allowing for a reduction of man-hours required for mounting the door outer panel to the door frame.
Furthermore, since the door outer panel is formed of a synthetic resin, the hook portion can easily be formed as part of a molding process of the door outer panel. In addition, one of a paired bolt and nut can be embedded in the door outer panel, which is considered as effective in improving the fixing efficiency using bolts and nuts.
Further, a vehicle door as described above can have parts, functioning similar to the conventional reinforcing rubber members described in the Background, by utilizing a molding process for forming the door outer panel and forming the parts from a synthetic resin thereof The reinforcing can be provided for by only allowing the door outer panel to be positioned and held relative to the door frame.
To this end, there is provided a vehicle door including a synthetic resin door outer panel and a door frame disposed on an inner surface side of the door outer panel for holding it, the door frame having at a vertically intermediate portion thereof a frame constituent member extending straight in a longitudinal direction of a vehicle body for reinforcing the door outer panel. The door outer panel has on an inner surface thereof a grid-like reinforcement portion formed integrally therewith. The grid-like reinforcement portion has a plurality of notches arranged in a longitudinal direction of the vehicle body so as to avoid any interference with the frame constituent member. A gap exists between a side of the frame constituent member that faces sideways of the vehicle body and inner surfaces of the respective notches that are opposed to the side of the frame constituent member. The gap is made uniform for all of the notches.
The grid-like reinforcement portion is molded integrally with the door outer panel molding process of the door outer panel. In addition, it is easy to use molding technology to make the gap uniform with respect to all of the notches. Therefore, a uniform reinforcement by the frame constituent member relative to the vertically intermediate portion of the door outer panel can occur with respect to the longitudinal direction of the vehicle body by only allowing the door outer panel to be positioned and held relative to the door frame.
On the other hand, since the grid-like reinforcement portion and the frame constituent member are spaced away from each other at all times, the generation of noise and wear can be avoided which would otherwise be the case when they slide or rub together.